Wood Encyclopedia
Search and identify wood species from around the world — with origin, Janka hardness, grain and color, working properties, common uses, and how to tell them apart.
Pin Oak
A ring-porous red-oak-group hardwood — pale tan with reddish undertones, coarse open grain and bold rays, sold and worked as red oak.
Hardwood
Ceylon Oak
Extremely hard, heavy South Asian hardwood (kusum) with fine even grain and medium-to-dark brown color, used for tool handles, crushers, and turnery.
Hardwood
Holm Oak
A dense, very hard evergreen Mediterranean oak with fine grain and gleaming rays — pale pink to light tan, heavy, and tough to work but exceptionally wear-resistant.
Hardwood
Red Oak
The workhorse of American hardwoods — a strong, ring-porous, coarse-grained oak with bold rays, a reddish cast, and open pores you can see with the naked eye.
Hardwood
White Oak
Dense, ring-porous North American hardwood prized for its prominent ray fleck, closed pores, and legendary rot resistance.
Hardwood
Silky Oak
A light golden Australian hardwood with bold ray fleck and a lacy, silky figure on quartered faces — the classic 'silky oak' of colonial furniture and joinery.
Hardwood
Pyrenean Oak
A warm golden-toned Iberian white oak with prominent ring-porous grain and bold ray fleck — a hardy, medium-dense European oak used for furniture, flooring, and cooperage.
Hardwood
English Oak
A ring-porous European white oak prized for strength, ray fleck, and durable heartwood in furniture, joinery, and cooperage.
Hardwood
Downy Oak
A dense, pale-gold Central European white oak with fine, distinct annual rings and broad rays — tough, durable, and closely related to English oak.
Hardwood
Cork Oak
The evergreen Mediterranean oak prized for its thick cork bark; the wood beneath is a dense, hard, reddish-brown oak used mostly for charcoal, turnery, and firewood.
Hardwood
Smoked Oak
European oak darkened throughout by ammonia fuming — the same tough, ring-porous Quercus robur, deepened to warm brown or charcoal without surface stain.
Hardwood
Reclaimed Oak
Salvaged oak recovered from old barns, beams, floors, and casks — dense, ring-porous timber prized for its aged patina, tight old-growth grain, and history.
Reclaimed
Tropical Hardwood
A dense, imported Neotropical hardwood with golden-yellow sapwood, very dark brown heartwood and tight concentric growth rings.
Tropical & Exotic
Unknown Hardwood
An unidentified golden-brown to tan hardwood shown as an annotated cross-section — a reference specimen whose species cannot be confirmed from the sample alone.
Hardwood
Weathered Hardwood
Not a single species but any hardwood whose surface has silvered to grey from sun, rain, and time — prized for its fine, raised grain and reclaimed patina.
Hardwood
Figured Hardwood
A hardwood showing wavy, curly figure in warm golden-tan to honey tones — the chatoyant 'curl' prized for showpiece surfaces.
Hardwood
Stained or Treated Hardwood
Not a single species but any hardwood whose natural color has been altered by stain, dye, or a preservative or protective treatment.
Hardwood
European Hardwood (Unknown)
An unidentified temperate hardwood sampled in the Czech Republic, showing reddish-brown heartwood, a darker outer ring, and clear medium-spaced growth rings.
Hardwood
Tropical/Exotic Hardwood
A general category for dense tropical hardwoods; this sample shows pale tan-to-cream heartwood with a distinct dark bark layer and clear growth structure.
Tropical & Exotic
Nigerian Hardwood (possibly Direm)
A cream-to-warm-tan West African hardwood from Nigeria, tentatively identified as Direm, with prominent rays and reddish-brown vessel highlights.
Hardwood
Lacewood
Australian rainforest hardwood whose quartersawn face bursts with a lacy ray-fleck figure — reddish-brown ground splashed with pale cream flecks.
Tropical & Exotic
Eucalyptus
A huge Australian hardwood genus sold as "gum": this sample shows the warm golden-honey, fine straight grain with subtle ray fleck typical of the eucalypt oaks.
Hardwood
Silver Fir
A pale, lightweight European softwood — creamy, fine, even grained and resin-canal free — long sold with spruce as generic 'whitewood' for building and joinery.
Softwood
Unknown Specimen (c00750)
An unidentified medium-to-dark brown hardwood specimen with moderate grain; documented from a real sample but not matched to a confirmed species.
Hardwood